Pubdate: Thu, 08 Aug 2002
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2002 The Sacramento Bee
Contact:  http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: Jason Keyser, Associated Press

ANCIENT MIDEAST DRUG TRADE REVEALED

JERUSALEM (AP) - A thriving Bronze Age drug trade supplied narcotics to 
ancient cultures throughout the eastern Mediterranean as balm for the pain 
of childbirth and disease, proving a sophisticated knowledge of medicines 
dating back thousands of years, researchers say.

Ancient ceramic pots, most of them nearly identical in shape and about five 
inches long, have been found in tombs and settlements throughout the Middle 
East, dating as far back as 1,400 B.C., said Joe Zias, an anthropologist at 
Jerusalem's Hebrew University.

The drugs were probably used as medicine and the finds are helping 
researchers better understand how ancient people treated illness and disease.

"It's a window to the past that many people are unaware of," Zias told a 
recent conference in Israel on DNA and archaeology. "Here's something used 
in prehistoric times and it's used until today."

When turned upside down, the thin-necked vessels with round bases resemble 
opium poppies pods. If there was any doubt about what was inside, the round 
bases have white markings, designs that symbolized knife cuts made on 
poppies bulbs so the white opium base can ooze and be harvested, Zias said.

The Mycenaean ceramics were analyzed with a procedure called gas 
chromatography that turned up traces of opium.

Hundreds of the pots have been found and they commonly show up in the hands 
of antiquities dealers in places like Jerusalem's Old City. "Give me an 
hour there and I could find you 10 of them," Zias said.

Based on ancient Egyptian medical writings from the 3rd millennium B.C., 
researchers believe opium and hashish - a smokable drug that comes from the 
concentrated resin from the flowers of hemp plants - were used during 
surgery and to treat aches and pains and other ailments. Hashish was also 
used to ease menstrual cramps and was even offered to women during childbirth.

Based on Egyptian writings, archaeologists believe the opium was eaten 
rather than smoked.

The drugs are part of a medical record that shows the ancients were far 
more advanced than most people realize, Zias said, noting evidence that 
European people did cranial surgery as long as 10,000 years ago, while the 
Romans left records of 120 surgical procedures.

Mark Spigelman, a Zias colleague at Hebrew University, found one of the 
poppy-shaped ceramic pots from the middle Bronze Age in Siqqura, a Giza 
cemetery near the pyramids outside of Cairo during a dig four years ago.

"We know for sure these things were used for medical purposes," Zias said. 
"The question is whether they were used for recreational purposes."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom